My Reality (25 page)

I had started getting recognized occasionally while
Bachelor
was airing, which I really didn’t like because of how that whole situation turned out. I was much happier being known as the girl from
Dancing with the Stars
than the girl from
The Bachelor.
More and more people had started coming up to me while I was eating, or shopping, or taking a walk. They were always very nice, and what they usually said was that they felt like they knew me. I had a lot of people either just start asking me questions about relationships, or tell me their thoughts on what had happened to me. I always wanted to tell them that, if they only knew my backstory, they’d really have something to say, but I decided it was better to keep my personal life as private as possible.

Anyhow, I had become more used to being recognized by the time Tye and I went to St. Lucia. When we got to the resort where we were staying, all of the butlers and waiters and staff said the same thing when Tye and I walked by:

“TV celebrity! TV celebrity!”

And they’d be pointing and smiling at us; it was really cute!

I’d just smile and wave. It really was flattering that the staff in St. Lucia knew who I was. Sometimes they had another chant when we passed by:

“Movie star! Movie star!”

I thought it was adorable! They thought I was a movie star!

Ha! I’ll take it!

Even though I clearly was not a movie star, Tye and I never corrected them. We just laughed and smiled. I mean, come on! It
is
funny!

At one point, one of the employees ran up to Tye and started pumping his fists in the air and chanting, “Move that bus! Move that bus!”

Huh?

Tye and I immediately cracked up laughing! Apparently, they thought that Tye was Ty Pennington, the host of
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
! And they had no idea who I was. We thought this was hilarious! But there were a few people who worked at the resort who did recognize me. And it baffled us how these natives of St. Lucia knew who I was. That really helped me to grasp how big the scope of
Bachelor
and
Dancing
was. These shows weren’t just something people were watching in Los Angeles and Dallas. People were seeing them all over the world.

When we went home to Dallas, I decided not to go back to my old job at the liquor distribution company. I figured that after
everything I had just gone through, now was the time in life to find something that I really enjoyed doing. I wasn’t necessarily in any hurry to go back to finding a new job and work, and so I was looking forward to having some down time. At least for a little bit. Tye was in the final stages of opening his office, and that meant going back and forth between Dallas and Austin quite a bit. Because he had been so great about picking up and going to LA to be with me during
Dancing
, I decided to do the same for him, and we traveled back and forth together for a few months.

I was perfectly happy with my little vacation, but it didn’t last. About two weeks after I had been on
Good Morning America
, I got a phone call from Deena Katz, who had become my mentor, manager, and second mother during the time I worked with her on
Dancing.

“Are you sitting down?” she said. “I’ve got some amazing news!
GMA
wants you to be a correspondent for them!”

“Are you kidding me?” I said.

GMA wants me?! Do they know I don’t have ANY experience in this field?!?

“No, what they want you for is fun, lighthearted morning pieces,” she said. “You go in, have fun, show your personality, go live, and go home.”

I couldn’t believe it. I was a finance major! I didn’t have any experience informing the public of anything. I had no idea how
real
television worked—I had never even actually conducted an interview!

Maybe this is because of the way I reacted when I went on the show with the other
DWTS
finalists, and I made such a scene about Derek Jeter merely saying my name . . . ?

So maybe they did just want me to be myself. I could be myself. That was for sure.

“Okay, let’s do it!” I said.

Just like everything else in my life around that time, it all happened very quickly. My first assignment was that weekend. It was a piece on comedian Steve Harvey.

Steve Harvey?! My first go at this, and they are throwing me right in!

As we taped the segment, I couldn’t quite comprehend what I was actually doing. It took all day to shoot, and it was so much fun! Then, that night, I flew to New York to “track” the story. Tracking is when you provide the voice-overs for the segment. After tracking the piece, I went to my hotel room (conveniently located across the street from the
GMA
studios), and tried to get a good night’s sleep for my first live segment the next morning.

My alarm went off at five o’clock, and off to the studio I went. I got my hair and makeup done (always makes you feel fantastic!), and got some notes on how the segment would go. I was told I’d be talking with Robin Roberts and Diane Sawyer.

Um, excuse me? Who?! Are these people actually my coworkers now? Un-believable!!

Walking out onto the
GMA
set was an unbelievable experience. At the time, they had a live audience in the studio, and they were all smiling and clapping for me.

This is a good start: At least they’re not booing.

My first live segment flew by! I chatted with Robin and Diane for a minute, then the piece aired, and we talked for a minute afterward about the story. And just like that, it was over. But that’s all it took to get me hooked! It was such a rush! Not just the TV part, but the
live
TV part! To me, there was something so exciting about the fact that I only had one shot to nail it—there were no do-overs or retakes.

The producers at
GMA
asked me to create a list of things that I
was interested in or that I’d always dreamed of doing. So I started thinking about it, as lists like this are hard to make when you’re put on the spot. Let’s see . . . anything involving children, food, discount shopping, sports, animals, Derek Jeter, adventure parks and roller coasters, dance . . .

I figured that was a good start. I mean, what were the chances I’d actually get to do any of the things on my list, anyway? They were probably just trying to make me feel like I had a say in this process. Well, paint me red and call me cynical! Wouldn’t you know that
GMA
made everything on my list happen!

Everything!

I got to go to the 2009 All-Star game and meet, yes, the man himself, Derek Jeter! Of course, by that point, Tye trumped even him, but STILL. I got to try out for the Rockettes. I got to ride roller coasters. I got to go discount clothes shopping! I mean, I got to do it all! And the best part of all?
This
was my job!!

A
nd then, on June 26, something happened that was the beginning of my real dreams coming true. The day certainly didn’t start out that way. I was in a bad mood, and I mean a REALLY bad mood. I was trying to house hunt because I wanted to move somewhere closer to Tye. And although I was on my eighth week of looking, I couldn’t find a house, and I couldn’t get approved for a loan because I didn’t have a job, and so I was incredibly frustrated with the whole process.

I had gone out on my own that day while Tye did some work at home. When I got back to his house, he tried to say hello and ask me about my day.

“Please stop talking to me,” I said. “I’m in such a bad mood. This whole house thing isn’t going to work out at all.”

“Baby, it’s okay,” Tye said, while rubbing my shoulders and trying to be sweet to me. “Don’t let today ruin it.”

“Listen to me, Tye, just give me a minute,” I said. “Let me have my time. Let me vent. Let me be in a bad mood.”

I shut myself in his room and stayed in there watching TV. We were supposed to have dinner with his parents that night, but I didn’t want to talk to anybody. I didn’t want to do anything. Everything was annoying me. Tye came in, still being so nice about everything, even though I was in such a bear of a mood.

“We’ve got dinner with my parents tonight,” he said. “Do you want to start getting ready? We can go early, and we’ll just talk for a little bit.”

I still was not in the mood to do anything or see anybody, but I could see that he was really trying his hardest.

“Yes, let’s go,” I said.

It was about a thirty-minute drive from his condo to his parents’ house. On the way there, I started feeling better enough that I was talking and joking around some. Then, Tye drove past his parents’ house.

“You just missed it,” I said.

“Oh, they’re not expecting us for another twenty minutes, so I want to show you something real quick,” he said. “There’s a church that, whenever we’re married and we decide to move out this way, I’d like to maybe attend.”

He stopped at this big church in Southlake, which is the town where he grew up and where his whole family lives. There was a small prayer chapel in front, and we got out and started walking up toward it. When we got inside, the air-conditioning wasn’t working. This was Texas in June, so it was sweltering, and I couldn’t figure out why we couldn’t just talk in the car.

“It’s awful hot in here,” I said.

“Just sit down,” he said.

So we sat down, and Tye started talking about his pop, who was his grandpa who had passed away. And then, he said the sweetest thing.

“I heard somewhere along the way that you’ll know when you believe in angels because you’ll see one in person,” he said.

I just looked at him, and then I realized he was talking about me. He started kind of tearing up a little bit. And then, he had this little Bible in his hand and he read me a couple of Bible verses. I figured he was crying because he was talking about his pop, and I tried to comfort him.

“Babe, why are you crying?” I said. “Everything’s okay.”

We were sitting side by side, and then, he got in front of me, and I thought he was coming in for a hug, so I hugged him close.

But he pushed me away.

So I tried to pull him closer.

And he pushed me away more firmly.

I couldn’t figure out why he was doing that when I was trying to make him feel better. He was struggling with something in his pocket. That’s when I looked down and he had this squished up little ring bag in his hand.

I got it then, and I just stopped. We sat there for what felt like eight minutes, just staring at each other, and both staring at the ring.

“Melissa, will you marry me?” he said.

“Yes,” I said.

I was just sitting there, crying and still looking at him and looking at the ring.

“Aren’t you going to put it on?” he finally asked.

“You’re supposed to put it on me,” I said.

When he put the ring on my finger, it felt absolutely amazing. After everything we had been through, we had made it, and we were getting married.

After that, we went to dinner at a restaurant in Southlake. I knew that we were having dinner with his parents, but I didn’t know that he had planned for my parents to be there, too. And then,
we went to a bar downtown, and it was a total surprise because all of our friends were there to celebrate our engagement with us. When we walked in, everyone was standing there, clapping and screaming and yelling for us. It was one of the best nights of my life, and I had no idea how Tye pulled it off, no clue AT ALL that he planned this whole thing.

We had talked about getting engaged, so I had known it was coming, but I was never the type of person who made deadlines or insisted that I needed to be engaged by a certain point. I had told him that as long as I knew he was in this for the long run, I didn’t need a ring right away. We had looked at them together a few times, but nothing serious. And let me say that just having him even look at a ring after a year and a half of dating, during which he never even saw my apartment, I knew that something was different this time around, and that we’d get there soon enough. I had figured I’d know when the time was near because he’d either be missing a lot or acting really shady and nervous, but I saw nothing coming. He had even thrown me off the scent by telling me he couldn’t afford to get me a ring right then because he was putting all of his money into his agency. I was absolutely fine with that. Our life was so great as it was, and we’d technically only been back together for five months. But of course, when it happened, I was overjoyed.

All I had wanted for the past three years was to have Tye in this capacity in my life, and I was so happy that I felt like I needed to keep pinching myself. Tye and I both come from the belief that when you get married, that’s it. There’s no divorce, so you can’t just change your mind if things get tough, and so it was the most amazing feeling to look at this man I loved so much and know that he was the person I was going to be with forever.

At least one of my friends was still wary about Tye when I told her the happy news. It actually took many of them a little while to trust him again. But once they saw how serious we were and had the chance to spend more time with him, they saw a different person and fell in love with him, too.

I know it’s not completely accurate, but in my mind, I’ve only been proposed to once. And I’ve only been engaged once. Even though I believed in it at the time, I now look at the first proposal as something that wasn’t real and only happened because I was wrapped up in this crazy television moment. I have, unfortunately, been engaged twice on paper. But I know how I felt when Tye proposed to me. And although I honestly can’t remember what I was thinking when Jason proposed, I don’t think it had anything to do with having found the man of my dreams, so much as elation that he had picked me. I have seen the clip of how I reacted when Jason proposed to me, and it was very showy, with him holding me and spinning me around, again and again, as the producers instructed us to do in order to get their shot. Tye’s proposal couldn’t have been more different, with just the two of us hugging and crying. As soon as I experienced that moment, I knew it was how it was supposed to be, and I knew, this time around, I had the right guy and it was going to be forever.